»» Columnists

The Media’s Weird Love Affair With Glenn Beck

video

by Glynnis MacNicol | 4:21 pm, March 19th, 2010

» 35 comments

Is anyone in the media not talking about Glenn Beck? It’s clear we here at Mediaite certainly spend a lot of time doing so, but it would appear the rest of the world is catching up. Are they ever. Just take my morning media consumption as an example.

First, Jon Stewart’s much-talked about “epic” parody of Beck on his show last night, which I actually didn’t find that funny, primarily because, as I’ve said before, Beck is really the only person who can do justice to Beck’s unpredictable theater/buffoonery. But I digress. This was followed (in real life, also) by Stephen Colbert’s utterly terrific and hysterical takedown of Beck’s recent, controversial advice to churchgoers (video below). When was the last time anyone warranted a Comedy Central double-hitter, as it were?

Then I came across a random Peggy Noonan reference to Beck in her column this week (she’s long thought him insane). Then there’s Matea Gold’s feature on Bill O’Reilly in this week-end’s LA Times, much of which pivots on O’Reilly in relation to Beck. Meanwhile, I caught Gail Collins on Brian Lehrer‘s WNYC talk show, during which Lehrer made reference to Beck in terms of health care reform voters.

The topper, however, has to be this article, which was chatted to me earlier, about how Glenn Beck is the Lady Gaga of cable news. Admittedly, I did remark to a colleague a few days ago how awesome it would have been if Gaga’s telephone hairdo had been replaced with the Mao phone!

So! What’s the conclusion here beyond the fact Glenn Beck is certainly very zeitgeisty? I wrote back in January that is was starting to look like Beck was being taken seriously by the mainstream media. And I think that’s probably true to some extent — ratings talk. But I also suspect Beck has two viewerships: the people who watch him and take what he says to heart (and although that generates great ratings, it’s still a relatively small slice of the population…about 3 million on average), and the media “elites,” who I am starting to suspect are secretly a bit in love with him.

I use the word love loosely (obviously) but there’s definitely an emerging general recognition on the part of the media that he is a genius at what he does (we mock because we love!). But also because he is by far the best content provider out there. The fact very few people in the media would admit to agreeing to his views appears to be taking a backseat to the chalkboard/Mao phone phenomenon. Something which became clear during Beck’s interview with Eric Massa one journalist on my twitter feed noted that it would be a good time for burglars to target journalists houses since every one of them was watching the “tickle fight” spectacle. There’s something to that. Beck has captivated the media as much (or more!) than he has the country at large — the 5pm time slot also jibes well with office hours — and I suspect a lot of his recent success, and the increasingly frequent mention of his name in mainstream places may be as much the result of that fascination as it is the result of Beck’s mass appeal.

Video of Colbert’s spot below. In my opinion, so much funnier than Stewart, specifically because he wasn’t trying to be Beck. Also, best line: “Jesus was a trustafarian…you just knew is dad was loaded.”

Related: Your Moment[s] of Glenn

Bill O'Reilly, Brian Lehrer, Gail Collins, Glenn Beck, Jon Stewart, Lady Gaga, Matea Gold, NPR, Peggy Noonan, stephen colbert, WNYC, Your Moment of Glenn

http://www.nukethefridge.com MartiniShark

This has to be the most ironic of all headlines, concerning it caps another piece by Glynnis covering Glenn.
timzank

The very existence of Beck (and FNC as a whole) is what makes sites like this profitable. Imagine if there were no fox or beck “bogey” man, this site would get about 1/10 the traffic and 0 profits. Double edged sword for them, they hate them for their success but they need them to survive. Kinda funny really.
Ted

I think the reasons are quite simple. 1) He is the first certifiable lunatic to have his own show on cable news and 2) therefore provides all kinds of material for comedy etc. I however object to making fun of anyone with a mental illness….just for the record.
Ted

I think the reasons are quite simple. 1) He is the first certifiable lunatic to have his own show on cable news and 2) therefore provides all kinds of material for comedy etc. I however object to making fun of anyone with a mental illness, even if its Glenn Beck….just for the record.
Ted

I don’t know why that happened.
http://www.sailrabbits.com Magister

A while back, I linked to an alternative weekly’s profile of a talk radio host out of Kansas City. One of the memorable quotes from the article was something her first boss had said; “You don’t want everybody to love you. Half are going to love you, and the half that hate you are going to keep listening and calling.”

Beck is a tremendous entertainer. I can’t recall the last time, a news-based host has had such influence on the national conversation. One could argue that Johnny Carson may have had such an effect, but though Johnny was grounded in current events, he wasn’t as close to “news” as Beck and Johnny was more universally loved.

Of course like lightning bugs in a Mason jar, I’m sure Glenn’s light will someday burn out and the public will move on to someone else. I don’t know if it’ll be from a self-inflicted wound, like maybe he’ll cross too far over a line or get out of too many limos sans panties, or if the public will simply tire of his antics, but since he’s hit a stride and for as long as he lasts, I have to say that he’s fun to watch.

Disclaimer: I mostly see him in clips because I haven’t found full episodes online.

(
http://www.anonymousfinch.com AnonymousFinch

Yeah, it’s pretty clear that Glynnis has a thing for Glenn Beck, and she’s just trying to hide behind the “media” label. In the coming weeks, she’ll probably be running headlines like: “The Media Ponders Glenn Beck’s Pure Raw Sexual Charisma” and “The Media Wonders: Is Glenn Beck the Next Tiger Woods?”.

But seriously, this is fair article with an appropriate tone. The simple answer is that Beck gets ratings because he’s the anti-obama. Obama is a well-educated, polished, careful liberal. Beck is a self-educated, unpolished, sometimes-reckless conservative. If you hate Obama, you like Beck, and vice versa.

But beyond those superficialities, he is an interesting figure. On the one hand, he is downright goofy at times, but on the other hand he periodically spends a full hour talking about things like Woodrow Wilson with academics like R.J. Pestritto. There’s a lot more substance to the guy than his critics will ever admit.

What frustrates me is that most of his critics (including the readers of this site who comment about him) clearly don’t watch or listen to either of his shows. Paul Krugman gets away with accusing Beck of inventing the FEMA camps conspiracy, when the truth is that Beck ran a two part special debunking the theory and once screamed at a caller on his show for bringing it up because he thinks its so stupid. Is that merely gross journalistic malpractice, or are they trying to discredit Beck and slime him? It’s probably a little of both, but in either event its wrong.
cappi

Well that gave me a chuckle. I would ascribe a much more base emotion to the fascination of the main stream media with Beck. Fear.
http://www.sailrabbits.com Magister

@AnonymousFinch: Beck gets “credit” for the FEMA-camp story because most people had never heard it until he started debunking it. When I mentioned this in a comment before, somebody, I believe MichelleF said that they had heard it and it was the chatter on some blogs, but the vast majority of people knew nothing about it until Beck brought it to television.
bamman

AF wrote: “There’s a lot more substance to the guy than his critics will ever admit.”.

Amen.
http://www.anonymousfinch.com AnonymousFinch

Magister:

I’ve written on this topic here:

http://www.anonymousfinch.com/2009/06/12/paul-krugman-the-big-fake/

If you can view those videos and conclude that, as Krugman put it in an article called “The Big Hate,” Beck “warned viewers that the Federal Emergency Management Agency might be building concentration camps as part of the Obama administration’s ‘totalitarian’ agenda,” then you can just as readily believe that war is peace, freedom is slavery, and ignorance is strength.
stoogedudes

You know what? Glenn Beck is probably the guy who got me into cable news and more into politics. For the past few years, I have been discovering what I believe as it pertains to politics. Back in 2005, I believe, I turned on CNN Headline News (as it was called then, it’s HLN now) and saw Glenn Beck. He was cracking jokes, making odd faces, having a good time and I enjoyed it. Soon after, I watched it every day…it was a highlight of my day. I wasn’t much into politics back then, although I was a pretty ardent supporter of Bush and I defended him on a lot of things. But I was by no means informed about politics in any way then.

Back then, Republicans controlled the White House, the House and Senate. As such, Glenn was pretty tame compared to how he is now. Sure, he went after Michael Moore quite a bit and lashed out a little at people like Ted Kennedy, Jesse Jackson, George Soros and others, but for the most part he seemed pretty tolerant of everybody, regardless of politics. He had RFK, Jr on to talk about global warming. He had people on whom he disagreed with and was polite and reasonable. I really liked Glenn Beck then, and in fact on my MySpace page (which I no longer visit or update), I had a picture of him in my “Favorite TV Show’s” section. It still may be up on there.

Alas, here we are in 2010. Obama’s president, and I have found my principles and am now a liberal and Glenn Beck is on Fox News. Things have certainly changed in the last 4 or 5 years. Now, Glenn says things that nearly make blood shoot out of my eyes (one of Glenn’s favorite sayings).

It’s clear that Glenn Beck is talented and I know why people like him so much. He’s got charm and a sense of humor and a great amount of likability. I don’t believe he hates those who are progressive personally. I most definitely disagree with what he says about Progressives, but you know what? I kinda like the guy to this day, and when I watched him on HLN, he wasn’t very well known and I wanted everyone to know about this guy, and now Glynnis MacNicol is pointing out how the media has “a weird love affair with Glenn Beck” and every time you turn around, you hear something about him. I’m kinda proud. But not too proud. I’m still an evil progressive who eats puppies and small children.

Hey MSNBC, you oughta get a lefty version of Beck, you’d probably bump up your ratings!
http://www.sailrabbits.com Magister

@AnonymousFinch: Admittedly the fact that she had a Glenn Beck video on her MySpace page is only circumstantial evidence, but the first that I and everyone that I’ve ever asked heard about the FEMA camp story was when the woman was arrested for surveilling a National Guard base on Long Island and I only learned of it, when Glenn took to the air after the fact to preach non-violence.

IOW: Yes, Beck thoroughly debunked it and as I tried to find links to illustrate this comment, I found that there were (are) lots of very obscure, hate-filled websites that were trafficking in the story. But Beck, brought it to television and other than people laughing at him and some of his fans, I’ve never heard any one else mention it.
http://www.sailrabbits.com Magister

PS) See my above quote about love and hate and consider Glynnis’ post.
All in all, they equal ratings, minutes of television and inches of press.
http://www.anonymousfinch.com AnonymousFinch

Stoogedudes brings up a really good point. Glenn is really, really funny. Unfortunately, in the last year, he just hasn’t been doing as much comedy, which is unfortunate.

For example, every February 15th on the radio show he used to do a thing called “couple of the year.” Basically, he would have guys who forget about Valentine’s Day the day before call in, and they would fill-in a pre-written, fill-in-the-blank, “mad-lib” like love letter to their wife/girlfriend, etc. They would then call the wife/girlfriend together and tell her that the guy didn’t really forget Valentine’s Day. Instead, they would claim, the guy had written in months before and entered the couple in Glenn’s “couple of the year contest.” The guy had PRETENDED to forget Valentine Day because Glenn was “sick” and couldn’t give the couple of the year award on Valentine’s Day itself. He would then read the fill-in-the blank love letter to the wife/girlfriend, who would invariably buy the whole story/start to cry, apologize to the guy for being so bitchy the night before, etc., etc. It was the funniest thing ever. He would do about ten of them in a row and you heard the same love letter re-read over and over again, yet working each time, you would bust a gut laughing.

Alas, he didn’t do it this year! I tuned in on 2/15 waiting to hear it, and instead got 3 hours of healthcare.

I feel like until a year ago, Glenn was undiscovered. Very few people had heard of him, nobody disliked him, etc. It was just a small group of devoted listeners who could really enjoy it. Now, he’s always stirring up a controversy. Sad.
Azarkhan

Colbert is great!
http://www.anonymousfinch.com AnonymousFinch

Magister:

That’s fine. I understand where you’re coming from. But Glenn was getting letters about it and had a caller bring it up on the air, so he was obviously hearing about it from the fringes and wanted to do something about it.

But you have to agree that Paul Krugman, and others like him, are just pure unadulterated liars. Krugman didn’t say what you’re saying now. He said Beck ENDORSED the FEMA camps conspiracy and BLAMED it on Obama. That is a boldface lie, and the New York Times has never run a correction.
felixw

No surprise that the Left is obsessed with Glenn Beck. The whole engine of left-wing punditry is to vilify an individual, and then build the messaging on character attacks. And every six months or so, they need a new target. Hence the predictable move from Palin to Limbaugh to Beck, etc.
bamman

BTW, it’s nice to read a thread of comments where people state their opinions in a civil and conversational tone without hurling insults and obscenities at both the subject of discussion and commenters with whom they disagree (so far, anyway).
http://www.nukethefridge.com MartiniShark

What is absolutely amazing about the Krugman sophistry is that all the elements of his piece — hyperbole, inaccuracy, unattributed claims, conpiracy theory, pandering — are exactly the type of charges that get accused towards Glenn.
Olby Sucks

These are serious times.
http://www.sailrabbits.com Magister

@AnonymousFinch: To be honest, I’m sort of ambivalent toward Krugman. I mean, I occasionally read him, but he’s not one of my favorite pundits and perhaps th best thing I can say is that often more right than David Brooks, but I might be able to say the same about O’Reilly.
—

Oh, and if everyone would pardon my somewhat on-topic, anecdotal plug…

Last week, I actually tried to tip Beck with a story angle from my own blog that I feel may be right up his alley. It took me a while to decide whether or not to do it, but since the original story hadn’t gotten a lot of play and I didn’t see anyone else raising my question, I decided to take the plunge.

And what makes this anecdote semi-related to Glynnis’ original post is that after jumping through his SpamArrest hoop, Beck’s auto-reply said that he receives more than 4000 emails a day, which I consider impressive.
http://www.facebook.com/people/John-Boyer/602168764 John Boyer

“First, Jon Stewart’s much-talked about “epic” parody of Beck on his show last night, which I actually didn’t find that funny,”

Wholly agreed. Jon wasn’t really parodying as mocking.
http://topgradeacaiextreme.net/ curtisadlarr

I believe that he is a man who knows what he believes and stands by it, whether others like it or not.
http://topgradeacaiextreme.net/
valkyrie101

In the overall scheme of things, Beck divides. People love him, or hate him.
writer

Beck is on Fox. That alone is reason enough for the left to hate him, before he even says a word.
http://www.anonymousfinch.com AnonymousFinch

>>In the overall scheme of things, Beck divides. People love him, or hate him.

The same thing can be said of Obama. No?
http://www.facebook.com/people/Gordon-Bloyer/537945868 Gordon Bloyer

It is very amusing to read all the lefties attacking Beck. They use false quotes just as they do with Rush Limbaugh. Beck, Limbaugh and Hannity get very few facts wrong. If and when they do they correct them. Beck is doing an excellent job on the history of the Progressive movement. These folks are truly dangerous. They have infiltrated our government. They are one vote away from taking over the Supreme Court. If they take the court they will find every left-wing loony law Constitutional. It will be at that time you will have to worry about armed insurrection.
Martif

It is very amusing, Gordon – and sad at the same time. From the research I have done over the years as well as the independent research that GB asks his viewers to do, I have found the three you mectioned to be more accurate than most.

PLUS – I’m so sick of “sound bite” news reporting I just turn off or tune out!!
pyrope

All the media wannabes talking about Glenn Beck for two reasons:

1. They are jealous of his ratings, and

2. They are jealous of his ratings.

Hmmmmmm.
sibat0705

Juicy clothes
Buy full line Juicy couture products from our site at a low price to make yourself a fashionista! Dress juicy couture clothing, holding juicy couture
Shop prom dresses, formal dresses, prom shoes, 2010 designer prom gowns at dres4sale.
for cocktail dresses, dresses for prom, homecoming dresses, and evening dresses. Cheap prom dresses or couture designer evening gowns for your next formal.
evening dresses
Evening Dresses. Women’s Formal & Special Occasion Dresses … Welcome to Cheap Evening Dresses for Sale! … Buy Cheap Evening Dresses Sales & Accessories
prom dresses
KathyWilliams

What another poster said is exactly right, they love to hate him, but in the end they need him to keep making money and profiting. All tabloids work in this very same fashion.
Sincerely,
Kathy Williams CEO Of
Top Grade Acai Extreme
http://www.facebook.com/people/Tony-Westover/1496648721 Tony Westover

I’ve been a Beck viewer since his HLN days. And I wear that like a fuckin’ badge now that the MSM is absolutely terrified of the guy.

I guess I can understand their horror. Beck’s influence has resulted in hundreds of thousands of people marching on Washington and millions marching across America. Contrasts that to hatemonger Markos Moulitsas, who has influenced a few hundred douchebags to go to coffee shops and talk about politics like they’ve always done anyway.
corvin81

Hello,hi it´s just i do totally dig your fine article, i would be very honored if you would want me to publish a review about this work on my Site would you be ok with that?

Sincerely, John Peds
Author of how to cook salmon
jennielynsan

This is 1 of the best blogs in the area of education. If I don’t came in for a couple of days, there are so many stakes that it’ll hold me a couple of hours just to go through whatsoever I omitted!! Congratulations.

Thanks. wonderful great infos. here keep up Culinary Skills Egg Salad Recipe French Onion Soup Recipe the good worked. I cannot actually provide a more constructive commentary as i’m abit out of my deph but i will be checking back here for further updates.